De Kooning: An American Master

No, the title is not necessarily my opinion, but rather the title of a new book by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan. The book, which was several years in the writing, tells the story of mid 20th century American painter Willem de Kooning. Stevens, an art critic, and Swan a long time journalist of the art world, are very qualified to write the book...and their main conclusion is the title of the book.

While I am somewhat familiar with de Kooning, it has admittedly been a long time since I looked at his work. The recent release of this 750+ page book and its review in the New York Times (see link below), caused me to take some time this weekend to reaquaint myself with some of his work.

The Times review, as is normal, gives us some good highlights of de Kooning's life as detailed in the biography, which is always helpful when looking at an artist's paintings. He was born in Rotterdam, then later stowed away on a boat to America. Most of his artistic career was spent in New York City, specifically Greenwich Village. Knowing this and much more about him, just from the review, I browsed through some of his works online and in books. I felt I was better equipped to evaluate his works than in the past.

What I discovered was that de Kooning may indeed me an American Master. Many of his works come under the classification of ''Abstract-Expressionism," an expression he hated. Being a strong proponent of color in my own works, I was personally attracted to many of his works.

There is one line from the book that I think really described his technique: "He created thick, succulent swirls of paint that sometimes appeared almost geologically encrusted upon the canvas." Now that is good writing and also a very accurate description.

I think my favorite work of the paintings I reviewed this weekend is titled, "Composition" and was done in 1955. It currently hangs in the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in Las Vegas.

I encourage you to read the Times review then look at some his paintings in the link listed below. I think you will find them very enjoyable.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/12/books/review/12GROOMSL.html?
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/de_kooning_willem.html
http://www.corkrum.com/blogs/dekooning_composition.htm